World Straight Pool

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
It is a pretty weak field. Only 30 players? Calcutta? Granted there are some top names in it but overall its not much for a "World" title. I'm just dreaming here but it would be nice if the three (US Open, American, WC) could just combine into one true title. Probably never happen but as it is none are really all that great. The American gets the best fields for sure.

If you win a straight pool tournament with John Schmidt and Thorsten Hohmann playing in it you really did something.

It's not unlike winning a 9-ball tournament with Filler and Wu playing, doesn't really matter who else is in it, if you wanna win it you better play real good.

Obviously it's not a true world championship but it's about the best thing we have for 14.1 currently and I wish this would grow back into something bigger.

Regards, Dave
 

arcstats

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you win a straight pool tournament with John Schmidt and Thorsten Hohmann playing in it you really did something.

It's not unlike winning a 9-ball tournament with Filler and Wu playing, doesn't really matter who else is in it, if you wanna win it you better play real good.

Obviously it's not a true world championship but it's about the best thing we have for 14.1 currently and I wish this would grow back into something bigger.

Regards, Dave

Could not agree more with your assessment. I waited until Friday and bought the stream for the final 8 on. Needless to say I got my monies worth with long races and Grade I players. Everyone played at a high level, considering they were playing on a Diamond Pro-Am. Thoroughly enjoyable to watch, despite the usual Charlie Williams production flaws.

14.1 is slowly returning to the pool scene, and it is a better sport for it. All you rotation players should devote some serious time to straight pool in lieu of wasting all your time playing games where the game dictates what to shoot. Use your brain, force yourself to have to make multiple decisions prior to most shots. Especially you old guys out there. This is the best games for exercising your focus level for extended periods of time. If you're over 60, you know where I'm coming from.
 

BeiberLvr

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
14.1 is slowly returning to the pool scene, and it is a better sport for it. All you rotation players should devote some serious time to straight pool in lieu of wasting all your time playing games where the game dictates what to shoot. Use your brain, force yourself to have to make multiple decisions prior to most shots. Especially you old guys out there. This is the best games for exercising your focus level for extended periods of time. If you're over 60, you know where I'm coming from.

All you rotation players? Below are the last 3 winners for each of the major straight pool events. I would classify all of them (except Hohamnn) as rotation players.

14.1 is an excellent game, but I believe the era of 14.1 specialists being huge favorites over rotation players is over.

American Straight Pool Championship

2017 - Konrad Juszczyszyn
2018 - Eklent Kaci
2019 - Ruslan Chinakhov


World Straight Pool

2017 - Lee Van Corteza
2018 - Thorsten Hohmann
2019 - SVB


US Open Straight Pool

2016 - Dennis Orcollo
2017 - Lee Van Corteza
2019 - SVB
 

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
it's a pity to see this tournament held in low regard and with such a low number of participants. i always enjoyed the previous ones and considered its winners as world champs. hopefully it will recover, wpa sanctioned or not
 

jeephawk

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I really enjoyed a lot of Schmidt's commentary. Eberle also, particularly the day before, but John seemed right on point with a lot of his comments and very personable.
 

u12armresl

One Pocket back cutter
Silver Member
What is a write only "Bill Curran glasses" opportunity?

Don't think I've "Bill Curran glasses" heard of such a thing before.

At some point Dragon Promotions got banned/blocked from this site presumably because they treated it as a "write only" advertising opportunity.
 

arcstats

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
All you rotation players? Below are the last 3 winners for each of the major straight pool events. I would classify all of them (except Hohamnn) as rotation players.

14.1 is an excellent game, but I believe the era of 14.1 specialists being huge favorites over rotation players is over.

American Straight Pool Championship

2017 - Konrad Juszczyszyn
2018 - Eklent Kaci
2019 - Ruslan Chinakhov


World Straight Pool

2017 - Lee Van Corteza
2018 - Thorsten Hohmann
2019 - SVB


US Open Straight Pool

2016 - Dennis Orcollo
2017 - Lee Van Corteza
2019 - SVB

My comments were directed at amateur rotation players, certainly NOT professionals. Playing 14.1 will improve your overall game. Just ask any of the pros you listed.
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
World Champions

Back in the days of yore when straight pool was king, the world championship fields were often tiny. Sometimes the contenders had to face each other to decide which one person was going to contest the world title too so the champion only faced one challenger.

Another thing, if the championship wasn't contested at all for a year or three when little things like world wars and such got in the way, the reigning champion was considered the champion for all of those years until the championship was played for again.

These things make a small field with top players in it seem valid to me. As for WPA sanctioning, somebody could create another equally valid sanctioning body overnight.

The above applied to billiards, I am pretty sure straight pool too. If I am mistaken I am sure someone will correct me! Where is Terry Ardeno when we need him?

Hu
 

Joe_Jaguar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Back in the days of yore when straight pool was king, the world championship fields were often tiny. Sometimes the contenders had to face each other to decide which one person was going to contest the world title too so the champion only faced one challenger.

Another thing, if the championship wasn't contested at all for a year or three when little things like world wars and such got in the way, the reigning champion was considered the champion for all of those years until the championship was played for again.

These things make a small field with top players in it seem valid to me. As for WPA sanctioning, somebody could create another equally valid sanctioning body overnight.

The above applied to billiards, I am pretty sure straight pool too. If I am mistaken I am sure someone will correct me! Where is Terry Ardeno when we need him?

Hu

Hence the Dragon had it sanctioned by the WSA.



:shocked:
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Back in the days of yore when straight pool was king, the world championship fields were often tiny. Sometimes the contenders had to face each other to decide which one person was going to contest the world title too so the champion only faced one challenger.

Another thing, if the championship wasn't contested at all for a year or three when little things like world wars and such got in the way, the reigning champion was considered the champion for all of those years until the championship was played for again.

These things make a small field with top players in it seem valid to me. As for WPA sanctioning, somebody could create another equally valid sanctioning body overnight.

The above applied to billiards, I am pretty sure straight pool too. If I am mistaken I am sure someone will correct me! Where is Terry Ardeno when we need him?

Hu
Looking at the original draw it looked to me like 8 players out of 30 had any chance of winning this. A LOT of DEAD money in it. Its a toss-up as to which is weaker, US Open 14.1 or this. I could have done without the calcutta as well. Kinda bush-league for a so-called WC.
 

greyghost

Coast to Coast
Silver Member
Back in the days of yore when straight pool was king, the world championship fields were often tiny. Sometimes the contenders had to face each other to decide which one person was going to contest the world title too so the champion only faced one challenger.

Another thing, if the championship wasn't contested at all for a year or three when little things like world wars and such got in the way, the reigning champion was considered the champion for all of those years until the championship was played for again.

These things make a small field with top players in it seem valid to me. As for WPA sanctioning, somebody could create another equally valid sanctioning body overnight.

The above applied to billiards, I am pretty sure straight pool too. If I am mistaken I am sure someone will correct me! Where is Terry Ardeno when we need him?

Hu


agreed. im not of the mind that because it didn't have 128 players or whatever that its not enough to be a WC......and honestly governing bodies of the game are mostly full of baloney. All those championships greenleaf, mosconi and others had were mostly contested by 16 or less players fwiw


--G.G.
 

Dimeball

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
agreed. im not of the mind that because it didn't have 128 players or whatever that its not enough to be a WC......and honestly governing bodies of the game are mostly full of baloney. All those championships greenleaf, mosconi and others had were mostly contested by 16 or less players fwiw


--G.G.
Thanks for sharing this information. I agree, if the quality of players are there, small fields to me are just as impressive.
 

9BallKY

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I’ve seen many times where people say well there was only a small amount of players in the tournament so it doesn’t really count as much. If it’s a WC tournament and 5 players show up it’s not the fault of the winner. SVB won the tournament it’s not his fault how many players were there. Truth is he beat every player he faced and won the tournament therefore he deserves credit for it. Who can say if there had been 100 players that SVB wouldn’t have won? Nobody knows but if they don’t play we shouldn’t take away from the winner just because some players chose to stay home and not even try.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Many of the World Championships in the heyday of Straight Pool had only 16-20 players. The tournament might last a month and every player had to play one match against every other player. It was called a Round Robin tournament. The eventual champion might have a record like 16-2 or 15-3 (with 19 players) or something like that. The fields were small but they were all the elite players (usually invitation only events) and as you can see they had to play a lot of pool to win.

So in conclusion a small field tournament can be a very severe test of pool skill. Now in the case of this recent event I'm not so sure that all the elite players competed in it, maybe only seven or eight (or less) of the top players were there. It's still a nice win for Shane (with a paltry first prize) but is it one that he can be especially proud of. That I'm not so sure about.

I would say that winning the Bigfoot tournament with sixteen great players is far more of an achievement.
 
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